Mass Effect 2: Why the Best New Space Operas are Video Games

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George Lucas owes Bioware a favor. The once-celebrated filmmaker spent years and millions creating a trio of prequels that threatened to retroactively disembowel all of the mythical heft of the original Star Wars movies. And in one stroke, the Canadian game studio repaired at least some of the cultural damage wrought by Jar Jar Binks, with the release of Knights of the Old Republic, a PC and console-based role-playing game set in the distant past of the Star Wars universe. Although it was based on combat mechanics borrowed from Dungeons & Dragons, KOTR was classic space opera, full of galaxy-size threats, epic plot twists, and more melodrama than you could swing a deadly flashlight at. It also proved that a sci-fi game could not only pull off a better narrative than one of Hollywood's most legendary talents, but it could offer something new: a combination of film-like visuals and polish and choose-your-own-adventure interactivity. In this case, it was a simple one--you could choose to become the villain you once were, or reinvent yourself as the hero.

Now, while Lucas is tinkering with animated retreads and middling, kid-friendly game adaptations of his tarnished epic, Bioware is busy creating the best new space opera in years. Mass Effect told the surprisingly moving story of a team of humans and aliens trying to head off a galactic holocaust.

Mass Effect was gorgeous; it had character animations and voice acting that triggered real emotions in even the most callous gamers, it was less cumbersome combat than many role-playing games, and while its loot and experience-building side quests were mind-numbingly repetitive, they were optional. But when you think back to the game, you don't remember the slog of exploring bland worlds dotted with cookie-cutter bases that were, in turn, filled with easily dispatched robo-zombies. You remember the romantic choice you made, and the moments when you decided who lives and who dies. Dorky as it sounds, I'm still haunted by the team member I unintentionally lead to the slaughter. His name was Kaidan. He had a pretty rough childhood. He seemed like a nice guy--definitely nicer than that racist girl, whom I could have sent in his place.

Now, Bioware has released Mass Effect 2, the second in a planed trilogy of games, and I'm nervous. That's because, along with what appears to be another epic, interactive high-stakes story, the new game does what no other game has. It allows players to transfer their final saved game. "Some games have done something similar, bringing in the stats of a previous character," says Casey Hudson, project director for Mass Effect 2. "This is different. The narrative, the ongoing story, that's left the way you had it when you completed the first game."

For newcomers, Mass Effect 2 will play just fine without any saved game data. Your team, with a couple of exceptions, is all new, and so is the galactic threat. But your actions in the original could come back to haunt you. At least one minor character, an overly eager fanboy, will reappear, mindful of how you treated him last time around. Possibly your biggest decision, whether to install humanity as the leading political race in the galaxy or maintain the multi-species council that was so dismissive of you and the rest of humanity, will be reflected whenever you visit the seat of power, the Citadel.

Integrating saved game data from the first game into the sequel wasn't much of a technical challenge, according to Hudson. The core mechanics of the game have been tweaked, not reinvented, and since you'll have access to a range of new gear and psychic powers, what's really being preserved are a range of decisions you made. The new game's narrative is already a maze of potential dialogue responses (most of which are more nuanced than simply being a goody two-shoes or a flat-out jerk) and branching plot points, but wherever possible, Mass Effect 2's writers tried to pull characters out of your past. Again, these can be interesting, if pointless, moments, glorified cameos that might not even register with some players. But Hudson claims that conversations with major characters will be filled with references to the hard choices you've already made.

Even if those old characters and plot points feel slotted into place in the new game, like a clumsy, narrative version of Mad Libs, the best thing about Mass Effect was its almost crushing sense of consequence. There were too many big moments, and too many small ones that grew in size and gravity later. The drama built steadily, until you were asked to decide the future of the human race. Along the way, the scope of the universe, and the sense that you could change its future, for better or worse, created something almost unprecedented: a space opera that was bold and adult and engrossing, without being utterly cheesy, or overly gritty. It also managed to be more immersive than nearly any game out there, not by locking you into a first-person perspective, but by centering the drama on you.

For Mass Effect 2, Hudson says that your decisions throughout the game will accumulate, to the extent that your version of Commander Shepherd might not make it to the planned third game in the trilogy. The threat of character death is a little unsettling, but that's not what scares me. It's the suspicion that, by pulling that saved game of mine, Mass Effect 2 remembers that I chose Kaidan to die. Maybe his face will show up in a news story. Maybe an old crew member will casually bring him up. I don't know why it still stings, but if it means blowing up a planet full of orphans to make everyone shut up about Kaidan, it's a choice I'd seriously consider.